It’s tempting to treat Book Club as the long-awaited sequel to the Sex In The City movies (Sex In The Suburbs?). Vivian (Jane Fonda) as sex-mad Samantha, Diane (Diane Keaton) as quirky Carrie, Carol (Mary Steenburgen) as the vanilla Charlotte and Sharon (Candice Bergen) as highflying Miranda. Though if they are, the four women have… Book Club Read More
Deadpool 2 4 stars
It’s half way through Deadpool 2 and as the body count rises the Fourth Wall is reduced to mere rubble, which means in future all movies will simply be our favourite stars talking directly to us through the screen, or maybe next to us on our sofas. The opening credits to Deadpool 2 are as… Deadpool 2 Read More
Fahrenheit 451 (Cannes 2018) 2.5 stars
I love the initial minutes of dystopian storytelling; how a society got to this point, the new realities of everyday life, and the capacity of the human spirit to absorb horrific change without challenging it. How much do they agree? How much are they hoping someone else will save them? Or maybe they just don’t… Fahrenheit 451 (Cannes 2018) Read More
No Shade 3.5 stars
*** UPDATE: 20 June 2018: No Shade is currently rolling out across the UK. Visit noshade.com to book tickets *** “If I’m natural I’m bush, and if I put on a wig I’m fake”, cries the beautiful and elegant Jade in frustration, as a succession of terrible dates and a broken love affair leave her… No Shade Read More
Sherlock Gnomes 2 stars
The cleverest line in Sherlock Gnomes, the sequel to 2011’s Gnomeo And Juliet, comes near the end – when Sherlock’s enemy, Moriarty, tells the great detective “I don’t need you!” Apparently lots of people are queuing up to have Moriarty as their nemesis, which is a funny and refreshing response to the usual movie dynamic… Sherlock Gnomes Read More
Ghost Stories 4 stars
“Abandon hope, all ye who enter here” is the inscription at the entrance to hell, according to Dante’s Divine Comedy. But while no one actually wants to go to hell – not even me, when it still looks as if that’s where Keanu is headed in Constantine – for many, it’s actually finding out that… Ghost Stories Read More
A Quiet Place 4.5 stars
With A Quiet Place, director and co-writer John Krasinski proves himself to be a master of relentless (and I mean relentless) tension, which doesn’t stop until the final frame. This film is only 90 minutes’ long but it’s a 90 minute crescendo of suspense, peppered with shocks and heartbreak. This is a battle for survival,… A Quiet Place Read More
Peter Rabbit 3 stars
It turns out I’ve been pronouncing radicchio wrong my whole life! Since the 90s anyway, when I realised there was a plant called radicchio. (In my defence, I didn’t eat an avocado til 1987.) This live action/CGI Peter Rabbit is only loosely based on the original – as my 8 year old said authoritatively, “it’s a sequel… Peter Rabbit Read More
Annihilation 4.5 stars
If there had been a pub in the deserted Area X zone where the all-women group of scientists is sent on a reconnaissance mission, I could have begun this review with “a biologist, a paramedic, a physicist, a psychologist and a geologist turn into a bar…” Annihilation gets under your skin, and leaves lots of unanswered… Annihilation Read More
Game Night 4 stars
This is a film about sperm and an egg, and what you can create out of them. In this case a fast paced, laugh-out-loud comedy with a nasty streak that pushes the envelope til the last frame. The sperm are Max’s (Jason Bateman). Their motility isn’t great, because of stress, and when the doctor asks… Game Night Read More
I, Tonya 4.5 stars
“Why CAN’T it just be about the skating?” replies Tonya Harding to a judge when they respond to her accusations of deliberately low marking with “Tonya, it’s never been entirely about the skating… you just refuse to play along”. It’s hardly her fault that she was born poor though, with an abusive parent who creates in… I, Tonya Read More
Lady Bird 3 stars
Maybe it’s my age – perhaps there’s a point at which one stops identifying with the irritating daughter and starts nodding along sagely with the irritating mum – but Lady Bird isn’t a film that grabbed me. Naturally, being a woman, after all the acclaim it’s received I finished watching it thinking “is it me?… Lady Bird Read More
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